So, today was my first “long” run. “Long” means the longest one of the week; pretty soon they will all be “long” in my book. Some week, hopefully in the distant future, I have to run 8 miles Tuesday, 10 miles Wednesday, and 8 miles again on Thursday. That’s all before the “long” run on Saturday: 20 miles. The last thing you to need to think of me is that I run 45 miles in a week and don’t think that’s a lot. PS. This is the novice training plan. I’m no complainer, remember, but I will say the miles add up pretty quickly…especially if I start having to run on the treadmill, which, with a snowstorm every week this winter, is very soon going to happen.Nothing makes me want to harm someone more than running on a treadmill. Not even a good treadmill, with a squishy track, built in tv with free favorite movies, and all sorts of distractions can fool me into thinking running indoors is a good idea. I instantly start sweating that itchy-indoor, drippy/sticky sweat, and the ceiling feels too low, and I get bored instantly. Plus, the only thing to watch is often some high school dudes checking themselves out in the mirror after lifting too much weight with totally wrong form and pretending they didn’t just hurt themselves. I have to face the facts though, training for a spring marathon is going to, at some point or another, involve a treadmill. Sigh.
The “long” run today was 9 miles. Not too long, but definitely not a “hey, wanna go for a jog today because its nice out and I like outdoor activities?” kind of run. Being the first long run of my training (since I haven’t exactly been paying attention to the first three weeks of the program), I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew I could do it, but I knew it would feel sort of tedious. Too bad, because it’s only like, what, a third of the actual marathon? Cripes. When you put it that way, 9 miles is nothing.
So, at my standard-no-matter-how-long-or-how-hard-it-seems-to-be pace of 10 minute miles, it was supposed to (and did) take 90 minutes to complete this run. How many things can you think of that take 90 minutes that you would rather do more than run? You could watch Shrek (any of them) in that amount of time, and that is never a bad use of 90 minutes. I absolutely love the scene in Shrek the Third when Gingy has his life flashback and we learn so much about him. Hey, he even runs on a treadmill in that scene, poor little guy. Oh, it’s also hilarious when he poops a gumdrop out of sheer terror. Poop is just so funny.
Here’s who poops on runs: Bruschi the mutt. If we start the day with a run, he poops in about five minutes. Maybe less. Then, on long runs, such as the aforementioned 9 miler, he poops more than once. I don’t know how it all fits in there but he’s a smart man to get it out. Here’s who needs to poop on runs, especially long ones, but can’t because it’s inappropriate: me.
Not to get TMI (too-much-information) on you, but this is definitely a topic necessary to discuss in the running world. If you can’t get your morning poo out before your run, you can kiss a comfortable last few miles goodbye. I should do research on why this happens; maybe I can figure out a way around it. I’ll report back next time. Luckily I seem to time my training (and whatever other factors go into this) around the tragic event of having to do one’s business mid-run. For 26.2 miles, however, I don’t think anyone can promise anything.On another note, the first “long” run of my training process went quite well.
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